The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 21

Palm Beach Post-Times, Saturday, October 2, 19T6-B5 From Bl WASPs LTLj-lUI "We just came along at the wrong time," Mrs. Strehle said. "But we proved women could fly." Mrs. James pounded the table. "We flew with the best of 'em, KSLTCi fore dawn, wearing those baggy suits, flying all day.

Sleeping in hotel display rooms," Mrs. James said. "They didn't make any provisions for women going to the bathroom on those planes. It was no problem for the men. Many times I didn't think I was going to make it." Mrs.

Lundy recounted, laughing "We flew longer than the men (service pilots). We flew our tails off. That's why we weren't liked," she went on. "That's why they called us eager beavers." Mrs. James joked.

"The men liked to stop here and there and see girls they knew." "My husband was one of the worst offenders, so he says." Mrs. Lundy said. The were an extraordinary group: a champion swimmer, a golfer, a cough drop heir, a model, a fashion designer. After the war, one became a New York psychiatrist, another an Alaskan bush pilot. One became a nun.

But what they wanted was to be militarized, as male service pilots had been. A 1944 bill to give them military commissions failed by 16 votes after civilian male pilots lobbied against the women, saying they were keeping men out of work. "They are afraid the Signal Corps, the merchant marines and telephone officers will want military status, too. We don't want retroactive benefits but some of the kids could use the medical benefits (of veterans' status i now. What we really want is to be recognized," Mrs.

James said. A bill militarizing the WASPs is bogged down in Indiana Sen. Vance Hartke's Veterans' Affairs Committee, of which Sen. Richard Stone (D-Fla.) is a member. "We were used and abused, that's all I can say." she added.

After the WASPs were disbanded, most of the lipstick jockeys tried to stay in the air. "It's an affliction for which there is no known cure," Mrs. Strehle said. Mrs. Nutt joined the Marines and married.

She still flies and is an air traffic controller at Witham Field in Stuart. i rnn "I was a real (women's) libber in those days. All I wanted to do was fly." Mrs. James said, despite the fact her husband, whom she taught to fly, was lost on a bombing run into Germany. Although afraid of flying, she had earned her license to attract a young pilot she liked.

"But he went off with some other chick and never came back," Mrs. James said. But she was hooked. A cranky old barnstorming pilot who hated women taught Mrs. Lundy to fly with a lot of screaming and throwing the plane into stalls.

She had never landed on anything but grass until she went into WASP training. Commercial airlines turned them down after the war, saying public opinion wouldn't stand for it. The women wrote Madame Chiang Kai-shek, volunteering to fly in the Chinese Army, but were refused. Finally Mrs. Lundy and her husband opened a flying school and Mrs.

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Turn orth on the Service road. 1801 HYPOLUXO RD. LANTANA, FLA The restaurant is filled with mementos real and simulated of the First World War and especially of the famed 94th. the "hat in the ring" squadron that led all the others in the number of its bombing missions and planes brought down. Each booth, for example, is decorated with photos of aviators and a pair of headphones on which you can listen to the real airport's control tower.

The plane outside is the same one used by the Red Baron in the film "the Blue Max." The 94th's rustic setting in the middle of open fields is "one of its most attractive features," according to Jack Jackson, divisional manager for Speciality Restaurants, a California-based chain that has some 50 "theme" restaurants across the country. Open only three months, the place is doing a "bang-up" business, he said, serving as many as SOU dinners on a busy night. The fact that it's far off the beaten track in more ways than one adds to what Jackson called its "mystique." This is the company's ninth restaurant based on a World War I theme. There's another 94th at the Clearwater airport and new ones planned for Miami and Orlando. Plans for expansion in Fort Lauderdale include decorating an extra room on a "Devil's Triangle" theme and hiring a farmer to keep some on the grounds and a French farm girl to milk them (Two calves that were part of the original scenery broke loose and caused a traffic accident, it seems).

"It's basically a steak house menu, with a handful of gourmet touches." Jackson said. He particularly recommended the sauteed shrimp in a super-rich sauce $7 .45 and the lemon veal For lighter meals, there's a quiche ($2.50 at lunch) or a seafood crepe ($3.50) or simplv soup, salad and French bread A short but well-chosen wine list ranges from half carafes of three Almaden wines at $2.50 to Mumm's champagne at $24 a bottle. It includes a cabernet sauvignon and a chardonnay from Robert Mondavi not cheap at about $6 a half-bottle, but some of the very best California wine available on the East Coast. One of the specialties of the bar is a marguenta served in a well-salted goblet the size of a small fishbowl. Just one quibble.

Is it all in good taste1? Dining among gas masks and machine gun cartridges may not be some people's idea of a jolly evening. Reminders of the stupidity of generals and the slaughter in the trenches may not whet everyone's appetite. Does anyone really care'' The only time Jackson said he remembered hearing a complaint about the decor was when a customer, overcome by patriotism as well as drink, objected to Baron von Richthofen's picture being over the bar. Curse you, Red Baron, indeed The nation that watched six years of Vietnam on TV during the dinner hour can hardly be said to have a squeamish stomach. The 94th isn't the place to fret about such things.

Do your duty instead and attack that steak Ricken-backer. The Battle of the Bulge was another war entirely. Be as devil-may-care as any ace as you dive into that chocolate mousse. Eat, drink and be merry alter all, a trip back home on the interstate can be as dangerous as many a combat mission. The 94th Aero Squadron.

2500 W. 62nd Fort Lauderdale, is open daily except at lunchtime Sunday. Lunch is served from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; a limited menu from 2:30 to 5 p.m.; dinner from 5 to 11 p.m., or midnight on weekends. Reservations are a good idea.

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